Many people I have talked to think they are young so hospitalisation will not occur to them as they are still healthy. But they never realise that the number ONE cause for hospitalisation is not any disease.
Below is a table abstracted from MOH’s website, from where you can see nearly 10% hospitalisation is caused by accident. Many also do not know that Food Poisoning can be considered as accident and covered by certain personal accident insurance.
However, one must be careful about the terms and conditions of your insurance contract. In some policies, the definition of accident must fulfill the condition of Accidental, External, Violent and Visible. In such policies, you will not be able to make a claim if the cause is due to food poisoning.
| 2004 | 2005 | 2006P | ||
| Total No. of Discharges (‘000) | 398.9 | 410.0 | 416.4 | |
| % of Total Discharges | ||||
| 1. | Accidents, Poisoning & Violence [ICD9 : 800-999] | 8.8 | 8.6 | 9.1 |
| 2. | Cancer [ICD9 : 140-208] | 5.4 | 5.4 | 5.5 |
| 3. | Ischaemic Heart Disease [ICD9 : 410-414] | 3.8 | 3.7 | 3.9 |
| 4. | Obstetric Complications affecting Fetus or Newborn [ICD9 : 761-763] | 1.8 | 2.6 | 2.4 |
| 5. | Pneumonia [ICD9 : 480-486] | 2.3 | 2.6 | 2.3 |
| 6. | Other Heart Diseases [ICD9 : 393-398,402,415-429] | 2.2 | 2.2 | 2.3 |
| 7. | Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease [ICD9 : 490-493, 496] | 2.1 | 2.3 | 2.3 |
| 8. | Cerebrovascular Disease (including stroke) [ICD9 : 430-438] | 2.4 | 2.2 | 2.1 |
| 9. | Intestinal Infectious Disease [ICD9 : 001-009] | 1.7 | 1.6 | 2.1 |
| 10. | Complications related to Pregnancy [ICD9 : 640-648] | 2.1 | 2.0 | 1.9 |